Barely Hanging On
by maxride227
Summary: Max and her brother Iggy have had a hard life. They are homeless and scarred from their past, and their present isnt so easy either. One day, walking to the bus stop to school, they come upon 3 kids that havent had such and easy life either. What new adventures will these kids bring, and what hardships will they have to go through to...Full sum. inside.FAX.Previously Homeless Heart
1. Chapter 1

"Thank you" I say sweetly and then I watch as Iggy distracts her by pretending he's blind. I walk over to the cans and drinks isle and grab as many things as I can and shove them into my pockets. I walk towards the automatic doors,my pockets bulging, and I'm a step outside the door when an alarm goes off. I bolt, and run to the woods just across the parking lot. I hear people yelling after me, telling me to come back . Yeah. As if I would do that. I hear my brother Iggys footsteps behind me and we run until we are at the highway on the other side of the little patch of woods. We both kneel over,panting, and catch our breath.

If you haven't gathered by now me and my brother just robbed a gas station. Now now don't judge just yet. You don't understand why we did it. Oh I'm sorry I haven't properly introduced myself yet. I'm Maximum Ride. But call me anything but Max and you might have your throat ripped out. I guess I should tell you a little about myself huh. Well I'm 5'8ish, I have honey brown hair with blonde sun streaks, I'm extremely skinny, that's what you would expect for someone who lives in the street,more on that later,but I do have a little bit of muscle,thanks to street fighting. I don't really like talking about my past do you'll just have to pick up on that later.

I look up as we reach the bridge we live under._ Home sweet home_ I think bitterly. Iggy and I go to our little ledge outcropping. I dump out the stuff I got, 3 bottles of soda, 5 cans of soup, and Ig dumps more stuff he took,first aid bandages, protein bars, and water bottles. We take a little bit and keep it on us a water and protein bars on us in case we ever get robbed of our stash of food. I take some bandages,food,and water. I walk around the little homeless town, handing out food and bandages where they are needed most. It's dark by the time I being making my way back to Iggy.

I sit down and Ig offers me a bag of chips from our small food pile. I take it and munch hungrily. "Thanks" I say softly. "Mmhmm". Iggy replies. I look at him, tall, skinny,pale, blue eyed and blonde. He looks nothing like me but were still siblings. I take after both our parents, mostly my mom, and he takes after our father. Or at least that's what mom told us, when we asked about him. You see, the man who left my family on our own,to fend for ourselves, I refuse to call him my dad. I only remember a little, and Iggy remembers bits and pieces. Iggy and I were 4 when he left. His name is Jeb Bachelder apparently he's blonde with blue eyes and glasses. I only remember his voice.

His voice was one of those kind that made you feel like the person you were talking to was trustworthy. He certainly wasn't. Now the only person I can trust is Iggy. And that's never going to change. Because when it comes down to it, there is really only us,and no one else. But enough mushy gushy stuff. I quickly grab my school binder and finish my homework. Yes, me and my brother still go to school. We had Margaret, another homeless woman under the bridge, sign our school papers. We learned how to forge her signature just invade something happens to her. I finish my homework And hand it to Iggy so he can copy it. That's how our system works. I do the homework one night, he does it the next. We have all our classes together. Iggy finishes up and I place all the homework back into my binder and lay down for the night. I put my head on my arm and pull a ratty towel up to me as a blanket.

MORNING MAX POV

I wake up in the morning and grab some clothes to change into. I walk up to a nearby stream and wash my face and try to wake myself up. I strip (no. bad perverts.) and almost turn into a maxsicle in the frigid morning air. I quickly pull on some ripped jeans, and no not styled that way. I slip on a Paramore t-shirt and a baggy jacket to hide the scars. More on that later. I tie up my duct taped vans, and walk back to the bridge. And meet up with Iggy. He's already dressed and holding out my school binder.

I take it from his hand and we walk the 1 1/2 miles to a bus stop in a suburb area. I look around at all the houses with longing. Iggy nudges me and nods his head in the direction of the bus stop I look and see 3 new kids. A little girl with beautiful blue eyes, blonde hair in ringlets down to her waist. She looked like an angel except for the sad eyes she possessed. I shift my gaze upwards, and see another girl. This time, she's mocha skinned with big brown eyes and talking a mile a minute, I hear her as we draw closer. And lastly, a tall, olive skinned boy, with hair that just covered his eyes in a skater boy cut. He looks up as Iggy and I slowly walk up to them. We make and eye contact and I almost gasp. Almost. His eyes are like a deep black abyss, you could lose yourself in them. I force my eyes away from his gaze and glance at Iggy.

We exchange a look that says " what?" As we finally reach the three new kids, the mocha skinned girl trails off. Iggy and I have no interest in meeting them so we stand apart from them while we wait for the bus. I watch the trio from the corner of my eye, and see the older girl whisper something to the others. Probably already making fun of us. I sigh. Just another torturer for me and Iggy. As the girl makes her way over to us, the bus pulls up.

I scramble on with Iggy behind me. We walk to the back dodging pencils and papers being thrown everywhere,some directed at us. We make it to the back and plop down into the seat we share. "Who we're they?" I ask, keeping my voice quiet. "I dunno. The older girl was pretty though." Iggy replies. I look at him in shock. "You know that you guys can't date right?" I ask him. "Why not though, Max?" " because for one, were outcasts, do you want to do that to her? And two, what happens when she wants to meet our parents, or go hang out at our house?" I reply. Iggy nods and looks out the window. I sigh and soon we are at the dreaded place called school. I call it hell. You'll figure out why real quick.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey guys! I'd like to say thank you to the people who did review, so here's a shout out to... I Was Divided by Zero , tomgirl1313 , and Writer of the Faeries ! I took your suggestions into consideration, and thank you for telling me! :) Ok well, you guys should know I don't update very often because I'm really busy, but I'm constantly writing, so every time I go to update, I just have to type it out. And I realized I never put a full summary in the other chapter so I'll put that in here too.**

**Disclaimer (only happening once): I'm not an old man that constantly licks his lips (I noticed when I met him) so that should answer your question. I havent seen any stories like this so I suppose I own the plot then.:)**

**Credits for the cover pic go to: I Was Divided by Zero !**

* * *

**Summary:**

_**Max and her brother Iggy have had a hard life. They are homeless and scarred from their past, and their present isnt so easy either. One day, walking to the bus stop to school, they come upon 3 kids that haven't had such and easy life either. What new adventures will these kids bring, and what hardships will they have to go through together? They are just in for the incredible, indescribable, Maximum Ride.**_

* * *

I put my head down and trudge into school. Iggy and I split apart because we don't have lockers next to each other. I make it to my locker without being harassed yet. When I reach the sickly greenish locker I spin the combination in. shoving my lunch in – a bag of chips – I pull out a pen and a couple of pencils. Then I freeze as I hear a sickly sweet voice say,

"Awww look at that, little Maxie is getting ready for school. Isn't that _nice_."

I shut my locker and turn around, peeking out at my tormentor, Lissa, through my eyelashes.

"Well?! Answer me!" she demands, glaring at me.

"Whatever you want Lissa" I reply quietly.

She opens her mouth to spit something back at me I'm sure, when the bell rings. Saved by the bell! I quickly slip around her and her posse of sluts and football players. Speed-walking to class I make it on time. My first class is math, with Mr. Ring I push open the light brown door and walk too my seat in the back, sitting next to Iggy. Mr. Ring is a cool teacher, though he makes fun of you every once in a while, he also lets you eat, drink, and chew gum in his class. I take out my notes and begin copying them from the board, Iggy doing the same. As all the other students trickle in, Mr. Ring comes in behind them.

"Ok guys, we have two new students today, I believe their names are Fang and Nudge right?"

He checks with the two kids standing next to him. I look up and see the older, mocha skinned girl from before, along with the dark-haired kid too. Hmm. Fang and Nudge.

"What kind of names are those?" Mr. Ring asks, voicing my thoughts.

"Your parents must have been friends with Iggy's parents." Mr. Ring jokes.

"You two can sit back next to Iggy and Max, raise your hands please."

We slowly raise our hands a little bit, and Nudge and Fang walk back to sit at our table (4-5 person tables)

"Ok well, considering today im busy grading papers, just copy the notes on the board and it's a free period today." Mr. Ring announces, sitting at his desk at the front.

"Hi! I'm Nudge! Oh well, you already knew that because he just told you. This is Fang"-gestures to the boy in black-"but you know that too. We just moved from Florida. It's REALLY hot there, but it's nice in the winter, do you like winter? I do! It's so pretty an-" She's cut off by a hand, I follow the arm back to Fang.

Iggy and I give each other a look that says _what fresh hell is this?_ Well, at least, that's what _I_ got from it. And I turn back to look at Fang and Nudge again, she said all that in _one breath._ Then I'm surprised to hear Fang utter

"Yeah, that's Nudge, she never shuts up." Nudge glares at him but stays quiet.

I sigh and say,

"I'm Max."

Iggy introduces himself too. I finish my notes and put my notebook away. I lay my head down on my arms, and try to catch some Z's. I hear Fang and Nudge chatting quietly. *BRRRRINGGG!* Ugh. Second period English AP, It's my best subject, but I hate my teacher, she's loud, strict, and hates Iggy and I because she thinks we're trailer trash or something. Well, she's got it somewhat right, we don't have a trailer, but we have a bridge! I walk in and plop down in a seat, receiving a glare from Mrs. Green. Honestly, I have no idea who would marry her. She's a total bitch. Excuse my french. Iggy comes in after me and sits behind me. I turn around to say hi when I notice his split lip. Narrowing my eyes at him I question,

"Who this time?"

"Dylan and Sam again" He mutters back.

My fists clench and I spit through my teeth,

"I'm sorry, but we can't bring attention to ourselves by fighting them."

"I know, it's fine" Iggy whispers back.

* * *

*TIME SKIP*-THE END OF THE SCHOOL DAY-

*BRIINGG* The last bell of the day rings and we all sprint out of there like demons from hell. I quickly stop by my locker to get my homework, then walk out of the school, waiting for Iggy by the stupid fountain in front of the school. I look around and see all 3 kids from before talking together **(A/N: Their school is K-12). **Well, not that Fang kid, he was staring at me. I raise my eyebrow like _"what?" _and turn around. Iggy finally walks up.

"Hey, I gotta go to the fighting ring tonight." I say as we begin the walk to the 'bad' side of town.

"Why don't you let me fight too?" Iggy complains.

"Because you don't need to." I snap back at him. Then I take a deep breath.

"And you're a good doctor" I add.

It was true too, the fight ring had needed a good doctor for a long time, and when I finally brought Iggy, they had found one. I didn't want him fighting, if Iggy got hurt, well I don't know what I'd do. He's my only family I have left.

* * *

*TIME SKIP*-THE FIGHT RING-

I duck as I see a fist flying towards my face, sliding underneath the big oaf's legs, let's call him Phil, I slide under Phil's legs and hop up behind him, flattening my fingers and jab him in his side, right above his spleen. I smile when he grunts in pain & doubles over. I kick him hard from behind and he falls to the ground on his meaty head, effectively knocking himself out. I crack up and hear Iggy behind me laughing as well. *DING DING* I hear the bell ring and I smirk. I won, again. Slipping out of the ring and making my way over to the office that the boss of this place, Seymour Chu, is. Iggy catches up with me as I open the door and let him go first. I walk in and say,

"11 fights. Yeah I know its less than my usual, but I wasn't really up for it tonight, and I gotta get home."

He looks up at me for a moment, the nods his head and replies,

"$75.00, that's all your going to get because you didn't fight as much tonight."

I open my mouth to protest, when Ig cuts me off.

"Max, let's just go home." he says quietly.

A silent warning, this is our only income, don't screw it up. I nod my head almost imperceptibly. Then I turn back to Chuey,

"Where's Iggy's pay, he did the same amount of work he always does."

"Yes, $50.00 like usual." Chu says as he hands us our moolah. Ig and I turn to leave as soon as we get our money.

* * *

*TIME SKIP*-ALMOST AT THE BRIDGE-

When we are just about to the bridge, Iggy says,

"I know your hurt, show me Max."

"I'm fine" I mutter. Then I grit my teeth as I take another step closer to the bridge.

"Max, don't. I can't lose you too."

This stops me in my tracks. Was he that worried about me? I turn around and look at him for a second, contemplating, then I nod and lift up my shirt (HE'S MY BROTHER, PERV'S!) to show my ribs. Looking down, I can see a bruise over my right rib cage, about half a foot long, diagonally across my ribs. Then I slip my shoe off and show him my ankle that I landed wrong on. I had bruises & cuts everywhere, but hose two injuries were the worst ones.

"And then whatever on my face" I say under my breath.

"Eh, you've got a split lip, and a bruised cheek." Iggy tells me. "You're ankle is just a little swollen, you should be fine by the day after tomorrow. Now be ready for this, it may hurt." He says.

"Wait, Wh-" I hiss in a breath as he presses on my rib cage.

"What. The. Hell. Was that for." I grunt.

"Your ribs are cracked, Max" Ig reports.

"...Well...crap." I quickly reply back.

Iggy looks at me with annoyance clear on his face. I crack a smile and soon he breaks out into a laugh and I laugh along with him, small, breathy laughs, because just breathing hurt. After our laugh fest, I say,

"Cmon' Ig." with a huge grin on my face. We go through our nightly routine, with Iggy doing the homework.

"Night Ig." I yawn, curling up.

"G'night Max." He quietly replies.

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**Done with chapter two! Booyah! Ok I'll start writing the next chapter ASAP, after I update my other you again to everyone that reviewed! Credits for the Cover Photo go to: I Was Divided by Zero ! Gracias, chica! **

**Also: Links to the clothes Max wears (and possibly other characters) will be on my profile. Please R&R everyone!**

**~ Nikki**

**Tough times never last, but tough people do. ****- Robert H Schuller**


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